Word: demeanor
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...different from you and me," wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Yes," Ernest Hemingway appended, "they have more money." But Claus and Sunny von Bulow, at least as represented in this marvelously sad and funny docucomedy, really were different. She, the depressive Newport heiress, with a frail hauteur in her demeanor and a well-stocked pharmacy in her purse. He, Danish-born and smartly foppish, living off her wealth and at her whim. Not Eurotrash exactly -- aristotrash. When in 1981 Claus was accused of attempting to murder Sunny with insulin injections, leaving her in a coma from which she has not emerged...
Diderot's spiked dialogue helps, of course, but it is largely Geidt's dry voice and haughty demeanor which keep us interested. He's a John Houseman of the 18th Century, able to deflate the ego of Rameau's nephew without having to look him in the face. The philosopher also has a knack for preempting our own views of Rameau's nephew, "I believe you have brought the art of debasement to new heights," he declares, "I think I liked you better as a musician than as a moralist...
Here is Scorsese's definition of the wise-guy philosophy: "Want. Take. Simple." They are animals, and watching GoodFellas is like going to the Bronx Zoo. You stare at the beasts of prey and find a brute charisma in their demeanor. You wonder how you would act if you lived in their world, where aggression is rewarded and decency is crushed. Finally you walk away, tantalized by a view into the darkest part of yourself, glad that that part is still behind bars...
Although women's groups have announced their opposition to Souter for his refusal to answer specific questions about abortion rights, the unassuming, reclusive New Englander seems to have disarmed most of his committee foes. In a baritone voice, the strength of which belies his slight physique and reticent demeanor, Souter movingly deflected insinuations that he is a legal automaton with little regard for the human condition. As a trial judge, he said, "I learned two lessons: one, some human life is going to be changed in some way by what we do . . . and two, therefore, we had better use every...
Helmut Kohl deserves credit for what is happening in Germany, but not quite as much as his occasionally bumptious demeanor suggests. He's in some danger of becoming the Goodyear blimp of the international diplomatic circuit, soaring above everyone from Houston to Zheleznovodsk, inflated with the self- satisfaction of a politician on a roll. He is that, of course, but he ought to be more. And less. The world is watching not because Kohl is leading his Christian Democratic Union into an election later this year but because his country is triumphing over two of the great curses of this...